4 Colo. Code Regs. § 723-2-2309

Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 20, October 25, 2024

Section 4 CCR 723-2-2309 - Availability of Service - Adequacy of Facilities

Each HCSM recipient shall employ prudent management planning practices, including budgeting and prioritizing resources, to ensure that adequate facilities and equipment are in service to provide service to prospective customers in its service territory and in areas where HCSM support is provided in conformance with the HCSM recipient's line extension policy.

(a) Each HCSM recipient shall maintain, as part of its TOS, the rules, regulations, circumstances, terms, and conditions under which line extensions or extensions of service by the HCSM recipient will be made in order to render service to a prospective end user within the exchange area.

A HCSM recipient's line extension policies:

(I) shall not discriminate among the HCSM recipient's prospective customer by class of service;

(II) shall include rate schedules for service connections, extensions, and line mileage, as applicable;

(III) shall provide a construction credit to prospective customers which reflects the amount of its capital investment that is supported by customers' revenues, the HCSM, and all other price support mechanisms established by the federal and state governments if the HCSM recipient receives support from such price support mechanisms (i.e., its supported costs); and

(IV) shall be on file at a business location in Colorado and shall be on the HCSM recipient's website, and shall be available for inspection by the public during normal business hours.

(b) Date of application for service.

(I) When a customer orders service and the HCSM recipient is not required to provide a construction charge estimate prior to providing service at the customer's premises, the date of application for service shall be the date of the first oral or written customer contact with the HCSM recipient to request service.

(II) When a customer orders service and the HCSM recipient is required to provide a construction charge estimate prior to providing service at the customer's premises, the date of application for service shall be the date on which the customer makes payment or partial payment of initial construction charges. If no payment is required from the customer, the date of application for service is the date the estimate was provided to the customer.

(c) Information to be provided to residential or small business customers at the time of application for service.

(I) At the time of the first customer contact to apply for service, the HCSM recipient shall provide the customer an order number. If construction charges are, or may be required to provide the customer service, the customer shall be informed during the first customer contact that construction may be required to provide service. The HCSM recipient must subsequently inform the customer within 30 days of the customer's first contact that construction will be required and a construction charge estimate is necessary before the HCSM recipient quotes the estimated construction charge. If the TOS documents of the HCSM recipient require the payment of an engineering fee prior to the provision of a construction charge estimate, the customer shall be informed of the required fee at the time of second customer contact.

(II) The HCSM recipient shall specifically ask customers who contact the HCSM recipient to inquire about service availability if the customer desires to initiate, at that time, a request for service. The HCSM recipient shall not discourage the customer from placing an order at the time of such inquiry and shall use the date offered for service or a date otherwise agreed upon with the customer for service as the due date for installation.

(III) A HCSM recipient shall provide any information and assistance necessary to enable customer to choose from the lowest costbasic service or other alternatives it provides which conform to the customer's or applicant's stated needs.

(d) Construction charge estimate. When a customer orders service and the TOS document of the HCSM recipient requires the provision of a construction charge estimate, the HCSM recipient shall provide to the customer, within 30 days from the date of the customer's request for an estimate, a good faith written cost estimate of the amount of the required payment. If the HCSM recipient's TOS document requires the payment of an engineering fee prior to the provision of a construction charge estimate, the payment of the engineering fee shall be notice to the HCSM recipient that the customer desires a construction charge estimate to be performed within 30 days. For group applications, the 30 days commence after all applicants have paid the required engineering fee. The good faith written cost estimate shall inform the customer that receipt of payment or partial payment is required before the customer's request will be considered an application for service.

(e) Notices to residential and small business customers. All customers who are not provided service within ten days of the date of application for service or by the customer's requested date for service, whichever is later, shall be provided a written notice by the HCSM recipient, stating the order number assigned by the HCSM recipient to the application for service, the general status of the order, and a phone number to call with questions. This notice shall be postmarked on or before the 15th day after the date of application.

(f) Provision of basic local exchange service.

(I) Time frames for providing basic local exchange service and any remedies associated with not providing service by these time frames shall apply to all applications for service for the primary (first) residential and primary (first) business lines.

(II) Time frames for provision of service.

(A) Each HCSM recipient shall provide 95 percent of its customers with primary basic local exchange service no later than ten days from the date of the customer's application for service, except that when the customer requests a later date of service, the service shall be provided by the requested date, unless construction of new facilities is required in which case subparagraph (B) below shall apply. The HCSM recipient shall provide primary basic local exchange service to the remaining five percent of customers within 30 days of the application date for service.

(B) If construction of new facilities is required, the HCSM recipient shall provide that customer with basic local exchange service no later than 90 days from the date of the customer's application for service. When construction is required during the months of October through May, or when construction is required in counties that have construction moratoriums in place, a HCSM recipient shall provide primary basic local exchange service no later than 150 days from the date of the customer's application for service.

(III) Remedies to customers not receiving basic local exchange service within 30 days.

(A) If a HCSM recipient fails to provide basic local exchange service within the later of 30 days or (if applicable) the deadlines provided pursuant to subparagraph (f)(II)(B) above, the HCSM recipient shall provide a remedy to the customer for the first residential and the first business line. These remedies shall continue to be provided until the customer receives the basic local exchange service.

(B) Remedies shall include a credit that shall be applied to the customer's account no later than the second bill issued for service that has been provided in an amount at least equal to the pro rata monthly local exchange service charge for each day thereafter that service is not provided, a monthly credit up to $40 to reimburse the cost of a temporary alternative to basic local exchange service and an installation charge waiver. These monthly credits shall accrue until the customer receives basic local exchange service.

(IV) The credits and installation charge waivers described in subparagraph (III) shall be offered in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other remedy available to the customer or the Commission, including, but not limited to:

(A) an order by the Commission that the HCSM recipient provide basic local exchange service by a date certain; or

(B) penalties under § 40-7-105, C.R.S.

(g) HCSM recipients may seek a variance of any part of this rule, subject to all the following limitations.

(I) A request by a HCSM recipient for a blanket variance shall not be granted. Requested variances for individual customers, or individual developments or areas, shall be considered.

(II) A variance may be granted only in those instances where the HCSM recipient has demonstrated a good faith effort to comply with the provisions of this rule and the Commission finds that good cause exists to grant the variance.

(III) All HCSM recipients may request a variance from the Commission by application that sets forth in detail the grounds upon which the variance is sought.

4 CCR 723-2-2309

39 CR 21, November 10, 2016, effective 12/1/2016

40 CR 15, August 10, 2017, effective 9/1/2017

41 CR 03, February 10, 2018, effective 3/2/2018

42 CR 02, January 25, 2019, effective 2/14/2019

42 CR 07, April 10, 2019, effective 4/30/2019

43 CR 02, January 25, 2020, effective 2/14/2020

43 CR 17, September 10, 2020, effective 8/17/2020

44 CR 17, September 10, 2021, effective 8/11/2021

44 CR 18, September 25, 2021, effective 10/15/2021

45 CR 03, February 10, 2022, effective 12/29/2021

45 CR 01, January 10, 2022, effective 1/30/2022

46 CR 05, March 10, 2023, effective 3/30/2023